My body, 4 weeks after giving birth

This post actually was meant to be the three-week post. It lived in a scratch notebook for a week and I didn’t get a chance to start working on it until today.

So here is my three-week picture.

I’ve been about the same weight for the last two weeks, 172- 18 down and 15 to go.

Even though physically, in a perfect world where I was getting 8 hours of sleep a night, I think I could go back to normal training again, getting exercise isn’t easy. Or even my highest physical priority. If I could have ranked my health priorities over the last two weeks, it would have been:

1. Sleep.
2. Hydration
3. Walks.

It felt like, at the end of the day, when it was a choice between going for a walk or getting a nap, the nap won every time. And man, my standards for sleep had gotten low. I felt ecstatic any time I got more than 60 minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

But oh man! Motherhood is amazeballs. I mean, my wrinkled little newborn is turning into this bright-eyed little beauty who has such a sunny little personality.

At her second doctor appointment with dad.

Last week she started cooing and holding our gaze. She graduated to bigger diapers and bigger clothes, and we’re getting much more response from her when we talk to her and smile at her.

Falling asleep at 3 AM

That being said, tired as we were, the little frog and I did make it on a few walks.

At the lovely new Bog Walk with gramma last week.

My goals last week, and for the next two weeks, are to keep on track with meal planning and cooking at home. Last week I made these delicious taco bowls. They’re like Italian chicken in the crockpot, but Mexican style.

To make, dump a few chicken breasts, a jar of tomato salsa, some peppers (I used frozen, cause, convenience) and a can of black beans (liquid included) in a slow cooker for 8 hours on low. Serve over rice with cheese, plain Greek yogurt (my go-to substitute for sour cream) and fresh cilantro.

I also made this awesome bruschetta with lentils. I love late summer – we’re swimming with tomatoes and garden vegetables. The lentils have the bruschetta a tasty protein punch with all the usual tasty basil and garlic flavor.

Now that the frog is almost a month old, we’re starting to get more sleep and I’m feeling confident easing into a routine. In my manic sleep-deprived haze last week, I read four books on sleep training your child, all with wildly differing advice, and little that was very specific or helpful for the early weeks.

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

So in that spirit I put down my iPhone this week (except for photos!) and waited until a blessed nap occurred before I wrote this post.

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About Pattie Reaves

By day, I'm the User Experience and Audience Manager for the Bangor Daily News. By night, I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.

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Pattie Reaves

By day, I'm the User Experience and Audience Manager for the Bangor Daily News. By night, I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.